Landino Complaint Dropped

A complaint about state Rep. Robert Landino's annual report was withdrawn after state officials said the mailing's delay was the fault of a hired postal service.

Clinton resident Ronald Nash has withdrawn the complaint he submitted to the elections enforcement commission in August. It charged that Landino sent the report, paid for with public funds, to residences in the 35th House District within three months of the Nov. 3 election.

Nash had said that the report was intended to promote Landino's re-election campaign and that election laws prohibit such mailings from being sent within 90 days of the election. Last Wednesday, the elections enforcement commission accepted the withdrawal of the complaint.

According to the Office of Legislative Management, the mailing of Landino's annual report was delayed because Delivery Point Services, a private postal service it hired, failed to meet the deadline for the delivery of the districtwide mailings for about 50 members of the General Assembly. The legislators had submitted their mailings to the legislative management office, which then turned them over to Delivery Point in Hartford, said Michael L. Nauer, acting executive director of the legislative management office.

``The legislators have done nothing wrong; we have done nothing wrong,'' Nauer said. ``There was a glitch in the mailing service.''

An official at Delivery Point said Monday he was unsure what happened in August. He added that the company has not done any mailings for the office ``in months.''

Of all the mailings that were delayed, Landino's was the only one that generated a complaint, Nauer said.

At the time of the complaint, Landino said that his mailing was no different from the legislative reports he had issued for the last three years and that they are common practice among legislators.

On Monday, Landino said he was pleased the complaint had been dropped.

``The origin of the complaint had absolutely nothing to do with what I had done personally,'' he said, adding that he had met his obligation to submit the mailing to the state office on time.